Rambling Timbers, the main lodge, serves as the heart of the Hewnoaks property. Perched atop the hill on the upper level of the campus, this expansive structure began as a 19th-century farmhouse before Douglas and Marion Larabee Volk transformed it into a Tudor Revival-style summer home in 1901.
Their renovations introduced latticed windows, hewn wooden lintels, and a stucco exterior. Somewhere between 1904 and 1912, they added the dining room and kitchen wings. By 1904, Swedish-born woodcarver Karl Von Rydingsvard had added intricate Arts and Crafts-style carvings of natural motifs to the exterior. Additional interior carvings and custom furniture were crafted by Von Rydingsvard and Douglasâs son, Wendell. The first floor retains its original decorative elements and objects collected by Douglas and Marion, preserving the homeâs historic character.
Rambling Timbers features a large, airy living room with a working fireplace that is favored by residents as an informal gathering place and is often used for events and other receptions. This space is also the home of the center beam, known colloquially as the âsummer-tree beam,â a distinctively forked, hand hewn oak trunk which ârequired special search for a tree of the gigantic proportions necessary.â
The dining room, centered on a massive John Broadstreet dining table, is the site of Hewnoaksâ weekly potluck meals, and adjoins a kitchen which is for the private use of our staff. Next to this lies the Community Room, where good, strong WiFi can be accessed and many chance encounters between residents take place.
Upstairs are four bedrooms and two bathrooms, which are primarily used as private accommodations for site staff, but also occasionally serve as overflow lodgings during retreats and workshops.
As Rambling Timbers contains staff lodgings and we are committed to maintaining health work/life boundaries, we kindly request that residents refrain from entering the main building from 8pm to 9am, though the Community Room is open around the clock.
